2011 - Radfahrbilanz

2011 wurden 9034km pedaliert. Das ist seit 2008 die geringste Kilometersumme. Dabei hat das Jahr aus radfahrererscher Sicht sehr ordentlich begonnen. Bis Ende Februar waren die ersten 1000km schon beinahe zusammen und der März war mit 1172km der insgesamt kiometerreichste Monat des gesamten Jahres. Der Sommer war radfahrerisch schwach - doch gab es dafür einen guten Grund. Und dieser gute Grund ist nun einige Monate alt, beschert die ein oder andere schlaflose Nacht, volle Windeln aber vor allem sehr, sehr viel Freude.
Im Herbst begann sich das Leben dann auch wieder zu normalisieren und ich fuhr viele kürzere Runden (so sehr lang weg sein mochte ich noch nicht), das gute Wetter war dabei sehr hilfreich.

Dieses Jahr nahm ich an keinem Brevet teil, auch gab es keinen Fahrradsommerurlab. Als radfahrerischer Höhepunkt ist somit ganz eindeutig die Tour nach London gegen Ende März auszumachen. In zwei Tagen von Bielefeld nach Rotterdam/Hook van Holland, dann mit der Fähre nach Harwich und von dort an einem halben Tag nach London. Das ganze bei milden Temperaturen, ordentlich Sonne und auch mehr Wind als unbedingt immer gewünscht. Das war eine sehr schöne Tour.
Der 200er und 300er Brevet im Weserbergland lagen zeitlich dieses Jahr unpassend, andere Startorte waren mir zu aufwändig zu erreichen und ohne einen 200er oder 300er gefahren zu sein, wollte ich auch keinen 400er oder 600er angehen. Paris-Brest-Paris stand dieses Mal ebenfalls nicht zur Debatte.



Die Kilometerverteilung zwichen beiden Rädern war dieses Mal recht ausgeglichen. Die vielen kurzen Runden im 2. Halbjahr fuhr ich überwiegend mit dem Specialized Rad. Lange Touren gab es tatsächlich nur recht wenige. Die 100km Distanz wurde nur einige wenige Male überschritten.
Als Neuerung kamen in den letzten Wochen noch Fahrten mit Anhänger (Croozer Kid 1) hinzu. Ein ganz spezielles Training. Vor einer Weile sah ich ein Rennradpaar (insgesamt also 3 Personen) mit Croozeranhänger. Sie fuhren aber in die Gegenrichtung, so kann ich nicht sagen wie schnell sie unterwegs waren. Croozer sagt 25km/h wären die zulässige Höchstgeschwindigkeit.
Mal sehen was 2012 so kommt. Ein Brevet und irgendeine hübsche Spezialtour sollten in jedem Fall wieder auf dem Plan stehen - aber wohl ohne Anhänger.

An alphorn doesn't make a hill the Swiss alps

Autumn is not summer. Even if the weather pretends to be summer, the late October just isn't. Unfortunately.
Doing a cycling trip in late October is still nice though, but it is a pity that some summeresque behaviours are void now. So for my ice cream break in Hiddesen. The ice café Daniele offers a world class cappucino ice cream and is in fact one of the real reasons I quite frequently chose to cycle to the Hermannsdenkmal. What a disappointment that this ice café is in its winter break already! All the way out to the Hermannsdenkmal I was happily anticipating a sunny summer like break with this gorgeous cappucino ice cream (with crispy white chocolate and a strong, but balanced taste of coffee) and then - nothing. No ice cream at all, the ice café gone and disappeared - bugger!
Anyway, I decided to go on to Bielefeld for an alternative ice café where they offer rhubarb and sweet chestnut icecream which both are pretty nice. Arriving there sun was almost gone and no rhubarb, no chestnut flavour - bugger again! Only the limited winter standard flavours. And the cognition a sunny and mild late October day just isn't summer. It's the details not fitting and betraying the issue. Just like the alphorn blower I met recently at the Stromberg hill (155m) dosen't make that hill the Swiss alps.

Nevertheless it was atmospheric and funny. The straciatella ice cream was delicious, too. And I got a nice partial reminder about summer and serious mountains and am anticipating the real thing again - and I really hope the ice café Daniele will open its doors again next summer. Would be a loss if it didn't.

Promotion video for Bielefeld sports my experimental setup

I just discoverd that the promotion video for Bielefeld sports my experimental setup from my doctoral work. It's a while back, but once I did a pseudo experiment for filming purpose which made it to a promo video of the university. And as I just discovered also to a promotion video for the city of Bielefeld at about 1:30.

Looks of course nice. But I will find it even nicer if more folks will read my findings and cite it in their work. Especially the DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2009.02.045 Precise timing in fly motion vision is mediated by fast components of combined graded and spike signals is worth a read. It was a rather good article, nice general coverage of the issues and pretty neat findings. Unfortunately not wide spread.

A summer farewell at the Köterberg

Summer 2011 was kind of strange. Spring started brilliantly. But the summer was wet and rather cold to a far extend - all in all pretty disappointing. But on time with the starting autumn the weather became great again. Since time for cycling is currently rather short, I took opportunity for a few hours ride to enjoy this warm and sunny autumn and went to the highest peak of OWL - the Köterberg (actually parts of it don't belong to OWL, but to Lower Saxony). The precise hight differs according to various sources. Up on the peak there is the Köterberghaus and at its wall there is a plate stating it would be 500m above sea level (other sources claim heights between 496m and 502m). Anyway, it is the highest hill around, has a serious ramp up to the peak (average ascent from the Köterberg village to the peak is 14%, maximum is about 20%) and offers brilliant views. Hence, good for a cycling tour. The views from the peak are reaching over the Werserbergland, to the Teutoburger Wald/Eggegebirge, Solling and the Habichtswald. It is said, that on some days even the Brocken is to see, too. But I haven't spotted it yet on any of my visits there.



As almost every hill, river or village in the Weserbergland the Köterberg is also known from a Grimm's fairytale, "Die drei Vögelchen" which seems rather confused to me. But the hill is not playing aparticular role within that fairytale anyway.t
The Köterberg is also a famous meeting point for motor cyclists (I guess there were about 200 motor cycles on the parking lot). They just drive up there, drink a coffee, enjoy the views and have a chat with other motor cyclists. Sometimes even a chat with non motor cyclists...
The hour I kept being there I just enjoyed the sun, the views and the last impression of how summer actually feels. It was a nice tour to say the summer a friendly farewell. Come back soon.

Making jam of wild berries

Well, the wild berries harvest for this year is rather complete. I collected quite a few blueberries and many blackberries, but also a fair share of raspberries. It was a good year for berries.

All in all my efforts to collect berries yielded to about 50 glasses of jam.

The very first blueberries I found on the 30th of May at the Lippischer Velmerstot's peak, the last time I collected blueberries this year was on August the 1st on a lower hillside. There were still plenty of berries, but collecting them was much harder already compared to end of June/early July. Hence I didn't collect more blueberries later again. While I combined the first blueberries with some raspberries, the last harvest I combined with blackberries. Those blackberries were the first of this year and I collected them until September the 15th. There are still many blackberries to find, but the later the year, the more difficult it is to get a good quality of blackberries.

I traded a few glasses of my jam for some self made strawberry jam that was pretty delicious, too. But all in all I like blueberry and blackberry jam more. And these jams are even more healthy, too. Blackberries and Blueberries both contain Vitamin C, some Flavonoids and minerals, blueberries are famous for their health supporting abilities since ages, Hildegard von Bingen praised them particularly

I am still considering to collect a few fruits of the mountain ash and try to make jam of that, too. Never tried that before, but it is said to be delicious, too

Blueberries

On May the 30th I collected my first blueberries of this year. That was pretty early and done ona nice trip up the Velmerstot, which definitely is one of my very favorite locations. Up on the peak there is heathland with a few nice sandstone rocks. That place is just lovely and the highest peak around here (at least about 400m above the surrounding flatlands in western direction). Unfortunately the way up to that peak is not too easy with the bike and quite a distance (out and return about 100km), too. Hence I don't go there too often.

The nearer heights are a good place for blueberries, too. There is a very good place to collect blueberries rather close and much lower (about 200m lower than the Velmerstot). This year blueberries are really plenty and rather big, but harvesting is still pretty time consuming (this is Vaccinium myrtillus, not some cultivated form or V. corymbosum). Also there are many ticks waiting to secretly crawl on you. While getting biten isn't too amusing itself, the threat of deseases is really a serious issue. But the delicious blueberry jam is worth the effort. I made 11 glasses already (blueberry with a minor part of (wild) raspberry) and am considering to do a few more glasses.

Next month I hope for a good blackberry time. Need a few more empty jam glasses.

Faith hope and charity

Within my last post I wrote about a piece I was watching at the theatre in London. It was great - and probably a fair share of the success of that piecs was due to the resident director. Now she's conducting a new piece: "Faith hope and charity" by Ödön von Horváth - a piece about a kind of female Woyczeck.

I think theatre plays like that are pretty important, especially these days. Unfortunately funding in the UK is weak. So if you have a spare coin or note to spend you may consider to help funding that piece by donating that via http://www.wefund.co.uk/project/faith-hope-charity-southwark-playhouse. And if you are in the London region betwen June the 22nd and July the 16th, don't miss the opportunity to watch this piece.

For more information visit www.leapproductions.co.uk or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXxJmUS9YXM.